Swimming facilities, whether in pools, rivers, ponds, lakes, and oceans, often provide ladders for people to enter and exit deep water. These ladders may be attached to the end of docks, piers, or even free-floating platforms anchored in the middle of a lake. These ladders are usually slippery and require a person to exert substantial strength to pull their body out of the water and onto the ladder. Persons who have trouble using ladders, including the handicapped, elderly, and even small children are effectively banned from participating in recreational water activities associated with deep-water facilities. The ladder also fails to provide any underwater support that extends safely away from the dock or pier on which a person can rest or even participate in deep water recreational activities. People, as well as animals, specifically certain breeds of dogs, enjoy jumping and swimming from docks and other water facility structures, but often are in danger of drowning when they cannot climb back on the dock or find a place to rest and are too tired to swim a long distance to shore. Therefore, a need exists for a device that can facilitate the entry and exit of persons and animals to and from an above water structure to the water and that provides underwater support for persons engaged in the recreational water activities in deep water onto which the person can swim without having to pull their body up out of the water.
As shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,559,762, a safety ladder is secured to a pylon of a dock, pier or other floating structure on a body of water that can be used for ingress and egress of a boat or the water to the dock. However, the ladder fails to provide any support that extends under the water away from the dock to provide a stable support platform for persons engaged in recreational water activities. Additionally, such a ladder is extremely difficult for handicapped or disabled persons to use in entering or exiting from deeper water.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,465 discloses a retractable walk-in swimming pool ladder designed specifically for use with swimming pools. As with the above-noted patent, the retractable ladder fails to provide any support means extending under the water for persons to engaged in recreational water activities and simply provides an access between the pool deck and the water. The individual must still pull his body up out of the water to walk up the steps of the ladder.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,813,703 discloses a swimming pool wading platform for use by small children. The platform is designed to allow children to enjoy water activities without the danger of entering deeper water over their heads that presents of drowning hazard. No access way is provided for entering the platform from an above water structure, and once on the platform you are limited to the platform area by a netting that would prevent persons from enter the platform from the water. Therefore, there is a need for a device that will permit easy and safe entry and egress for people and animals to participate in deep-water recreational activities in pools, rivers, lakes, ponds and oceans, while also providing a submerged support structure that allows people to swim directly onto the structure for support without having to pull their body up out of the water.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a water activity assembly that provides convenient access between an associated above water structure and a body of water to allow persons to move easily between the water and the above water structure.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a submerged activity platform extending safely away from the associated above water structure that allows persons to swim directly onto and off of the platform for support in the water while engaged in recreational water activities.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a submerged activity platform for simultaneously supporting multiple people engaged in recreational water activities.